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Two European companies have agreed to develop a male birth control pill, partly based on Australian research, more than half a century after the oral contraceptive for women was first released.

Dutch pharmaceutical company NV Organon, a subsidiary of the chemicals giant Akzo Nobel, has announced it will team up with Germany's drug firm Schering AG to undertake the human trials necessary to bring the contraceptive to market in five to seven years.

"The possibility of a hormonal fertility control for men will add to the choice of contraceptives available to couples," said Professor Werner-Karl Raff, head of Schering's Fertility Control & Hormone Therapy division in a statement. "We are optimistic to fill this gap in the future."

Until recently, the two companies had been developing competing products for male fertility control, a market largely shunned by the pharmaceutical establishment, but now plan to collaborate. The joint project will begin with the design of an intermediate Phase II multi-centre clinical trial, followed by large-scale Phase III trials if successful.

David Handelsman, professor of Reproductive Endocrinology & Andrology at the University of Sydney and Director of the

ANZAC Research Institute, who has collaborated on research with Organon for many years, called the announcement a welcome development.

"This is a welcome if unusual step," he told ABC Science Online. "It's unusual for two drug companies to cooperate on something like that, to co-develop a product."

Although the companies have declined to specify their approach, Handelsman said it's likely to be a progestin and testosterone mix that he and many researchers around the world have been working to perfect.

Progestin, an artificial chemical hormone that stops egg production in women, also halts sperm production in men. However, a side effect in men is that testosterone levels plummet, requiring testosterone supplements to be applied.

"From a scientific point of view, it's no more complex to develop hormonal contraceptive for men," he said. "The research we've done [on male contraceptives] has gone well beyond what was available when female oral contraceptives reached the market, so there's no reason not to have them."

Nevertheless, modern drug laws require trials to ensure long-term efficacy and safety before they can be introduced, he said. And although the market is potentially large, profit margins are likely to be low because most of the elements are no longer in patent.

Handelsman said it's likely Organon will provide the progestin and Schering the testosterone, with the two companies sharing the benefits and risks of the new venture.

A recent survey of 188 fathers by the Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne found that three in every four of them would be willing to try a male hormonal contraceptive pill. Most preferred a daily pill, although some were happy to consider a three-monthly or two-yearly injection.